The difference two months makes~

well, two months and LOTS of love, attention, yummy food and just being part of a family. We were getting ready for church on Sunday and he was standing at the window in his diaper just looking so cute I had to snap some pictures. Later I remembered one I had taken in Vietnam that was similar. Now when I look at it, it isn't similar at all. He looks like a totally different child!

12/6/2008 Saigon, Vietnam



2/8/2009 HOME!



I honestly have a hard time looking at some of the pictures from Vietnam. He just looks so unhealthy and sad. We are blessed beyond measure to have him home with us and he is thriving!!

Daddy Daughter Dance

A while back I got an email about an upcoming Daddy/Daughter dance at the local community center. To be honest, I thought it would probably be pretty lame but hey, it was something for them to do and a good opportunity for her to have some special time with Daddy.

Seriously, she just looks so grown up!





They had to practice their "dip" before they left



I was soooo wrong about how lame it would be : ) Daddy said it was packed and so much fun. The DJs had it so organized and there were lots of dance contests. Also, corsages were sold and Annslee of course chose pink and purple.



Daddy took the camera along and it looks like she had a BLAST. Oh, and she WON the Disco Dance contest : )



Just added this so you could see my girl hanging will all the girls while the Daddys watch from the sidelines~ this was during the "air guitar" contest.



So glad they had a good time! They didn't get home until around 9:30 and she was wired so didn't go to sleep until way too late. She was giddy telling me all about her night with Daddy.

A glimpse of our day

Coby still wants to be held or at least hold onto me all day. While doing laundry I remembered a really good way to entertain a one year old. Of course I grabbed the camera instead of getting something else done while he was otherwise occupied : )

My favorite thing is when he is in another room and one of us walks in and he notices. He gets the biggest smile like "oh, there you are!" (cute pjs courtesy of Michelle)





Who is that handsome boy? I think I will give him a kiss : )




After school Annslee decided to "play school" with her as the teacher of course. (yes, she changed into a skirt that didn't match LOL)



I don't know what her student Coby did but I am glad I wasn't at the receiving end of this look! (please excuse the dirty face)



Sutton gave him this super cute onsie and I wanted a pic of him in it. Since Annslee was wearing black and white I thought it was the perfect opportunity. Coby was not as enthusiastic about it ~ this was the closest to a smile we got but really he is arching his back and trying to escape : )

Jealous, Bananas, Playtime and a Basket Case!

I noticed his eyelashes the first time I saw him. Poor Annslee has such short ones and she will be so jealous of his~ hey, I am too! I didn't realize how hard it is to take a picture of them and this one isn't great but you get the idea : )



I finally just handed him a whole banana yesterday and he was thrilled! He of course wanted to take bites that were too big. Annslee was happy to "coach" him. Daddy and I reminded her that she used to take huge bites too!



This is picture of Annslee at exactly the same age eating a banana. This was at her orphanage during our visit. They gave us bananas and the BEST tangerines we've ever had!*sorry the pic is taken from my old site and I can't resize it*



This is the little face he makes often..it is so stinkin cute!



Annslee has to do three make-up classes because we missed all the December classes while in Viet*nam. Last night after class was open gym so we stayed for that. Coby had a great time and was all over the place!






Annslee and Daddy played hide-n-seek with him and he found them!!



She cracks me up ALL the time!!

Super Sunday

Last night we hosted our Sunday School Super Bowl party and it was fun, loud, crazy, wild and we all were wishing the Super Bowl was on a Saturday as we had to get up early this morning : )






Annslee heard the National Ant*hem starting and immediately stood and put her hand over her heart like she always does. Paige and Lauren decided to do the same : )




Here are some of the girls playing in Annslee's room. We had a little issue as they kept locking the boys out. I had to remind her that everyone can play and not to lock them out. I also assured her that if she let them in they wouldn't stay long as they wouldn't want to play with anything in there anyway.



Here are some of the boys (Lincoln was pretending to be shy) I have to admit Annslee may have been right about keeping them out. After letting this crew in they messed up her room in minutes...upside down chairs, things thrown all over, etc... Crazy boys!



Our class sweetly threw us a surprise "baby shower" too and Coby got some great things. Annslee got a couple of gifts too : )



Yeah, we are real party animals!! We ended the evening with a Prin*cess story



We had 13 adults and 13 kids ~ man to man defense~ but I swear it still felt like we were outnumbered LOL

Catching Up

We've had a lot going on so I am behind in posting. We had a belated birthday party for Coby and had lots of kids there. It was loud, wild and crazy! Here is a shot of all the kidlets on the steps.



Annslee was very interested in his cake~ apparently Mia joined in too : )



He was fine the morning of the party but by the time the party started it was obvious he wasn't feeling well. Poor baby has been sick all week.



The few smiles I got out of him was when his cousin Shelby was helping him walk around : )



This week we also did a Lunar New Year presentation at Annslee's school. She made cookies shaped like China!



No surprise~ she used pink and purple icing



Coby was definitely ready to go to Annslee's school to celebrate



We read a story, did a craft and of course ate the cookies! Annslee wanted to sit in my lap and Miss Lee gladly held Coby.



My crazy girl in her dress after school~ remember all the surfing pictures from this summer, well, she is a surfer girl again apparently LOL

Sometimes you just get lucky!

Obviously we got lucky when we received our handsome boy. Today I got lucky taking pics of him. I bundled him up to go out the door to pick up Annslee at school. I just thought he looked so cute in his furry hood so I grabbed the camera. He has been sick so I wasn't sure if he would cooperate but he was in a really good mood : )






Poor baby~ you can see he has a cold by the look in his eyes and his little red nose and cheeks but seriously, what a cutie!





I decided to try turning this one into b&w and it definitely helped with those poor chapped cheeks.



I still can't believe we have a SON!

My BIG 43!!

As promised, here is the cake Annslee thought I should have. I actually just bought a frosted brownie and put all the Pony goodies on myself and she was satisfied. I didn't have 43 candles and didn't want to set off the smoke detector anyway : )



Me and my sweeties



I got a camera for the computer so we can see people we are talking to ~ any of you out there want to play along!



Apparently we were all very interested in what Daddy wrote



After I opened gifts Annslee told me "close eyes I surprise you" and ran upstairs. I love how she is looking through the rails to make sure I'm not peeking. She then handed me Pin*ky Pie to match the one on my cake. She cracks me up!



I of course got help blowing out the candles. Annslee was worried the whole time that Coby would grab a candle



For fun, here is a picture from last year. My lap is fuller this year and I love it!



On a funny note~ when our pizza was delivered Annslee ran to the door and said "Hey pizza man, what your name?"

A Snowy Birthday!!

It hasn't snowed on my birthday in a long time and I had hopes that we would actually get some this year. They were calling for 2 inches~ yay, perfect! Annslee talks of building a snowman and doing snow angels. She brings home snowman crafts from school~ personally I think it is cruel to do that to children who live where the reality of a snowman likely won't happen LOL but.. this morning it was snowing hard and so we were excited!!

Well,as you can see we got about what we usually get. Come on strain your eyes~ can't you see that white stuff?? She didn't care that it was merely a dusting, so we headed out while Coby napped : )



Ok...make your snow angel!! We did it on the deck so she wouldn't get muddy on the ground that wasn't even covered : (



I think it turned out great..oh, and check out her snowman!!!



She is still at our neighbor's house playing on their back deck and having hot chocolate. Coby woke up so I came home. I love FOUR...what a fun age. She is totally satisfied with the fun she is having in the "snow"

Stay tuned for the birthday cake Annslee chose for me : )